200609 20-2 Why Marriage? A Study of the Commitment Influencing Factors of Engaged Couples in Taiwan

 
Wen-Yi Shieh
Shih Chien University
Due to the increasing rate of divorce and people delaying or not choosing marriage in Taiwan, this study intended to examine (1) how dating couples today proceed from dating relationships to marriage; and (2) what factors influence dating couples’ willingness to commit into marriage. The present study was conducted by means of in-depth interviews with 20 engaged couples. Each couple was interviewed both individually and as a pair. It was found that, when young couples considered whether they should step into marriage, the factors influencing their decision seemed to be a mixture of the following four categories: social structure, social network, personal factors, and couple factors. Today’s young people appear to be still strongly influenced by some traditional Chinese values. Partner’s personality, emotional involvement, personal needs, mutual learning from each other, etc. also were considered. This study hopefully could help accumulating more knowledge in the field of couple relationships, and to serve as a reference for marriage preparation and premarital counseling in Taiwan.

Keywords
engaged couples, marital commitment, premarital relationships

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